Fairfax County's new teaching guide for 9/11 is the Norm MacDonald meme come to life. A decade ago, Norm wrote, "What terrifies me is if ISIS were to detonate a nuclear device and kill 50 million Americans. Imagine the backlash against peaceful Muslims?"
But in Fairfax, any teaching about 9/11 doesn't focus on the Islamic terrorists or their Islamic motivations. Instead, it tells teachers to create "safe spaces for Muslim and Middle Eastern students."
Fairfax County's new 9/11 teaching guide devotes roughly half its content to creating "safe spaces for Muslim and Middle Eastern students." while mentioning military families just three times and first responders once.
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) September 10, 2026
The six-page document, obtained by Fox News Digital's… pic.twitter.com/tlzlyxESPy
A wealthy Washington, D.C., suburb's public school district is advising teachers not to link 9/11 with radical Islam and to be sure to create "safe spaces" for Muslim students as the nation somberly marks the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans.
The guardrails in a six-page instructional guide, "25th Anniversary and Commemoration of 9/11" and distributed to teachers, has prompted critics to accuse Fairfax County (Virginia) Public School's liberal leaders of coddling post-9/11 sensitivities rather than teaching history.
"It's sort of a vanilla way to do things," retired Navy Vice Admiral Lou Crenshaw, who was stationed inside the Pentagon when al Qaeda terrorists crashed a hijacked passenger jet into the building. "Everybody can go through the deal and feel good about it. And at the end of the day, nobody complains."
This is how history gets erased. 9/11 was caused by Islam. It was carried out by Muslims. That's historical fact.
The North American Values Institute also did an analysis of 9/11 curriculum for K-12 students, and it's not good.
NAVI’s investigation prompted today’s NYPost expose on the failures in 9/11 curriculum for K-12 students.
— NAVI (@NAVIvalues) September 6, 2026
In one glaring example, curriculum developed at UPenn “erases the victims of 9/11, erases the causes of 9/11 and instead uses the terrorist attack and its aftermath as a… pic.twitter.com/N2HbYrI7Lx
The NAVI report finds that 9/11 curriculum offers minimal instruction on the attacks themselves, no discussion of Al Qaeda's ideology, emphasis on Islamophobia, the "repeated presentation of contested political opinions as established fact," and lessons that encourage political activism.
The University of Pennsylvania developed "Teaching Beyond September 11," which "examines 'the ongoing global impact of 9/11, focusing on the years 2001-2021.'" That curriculum fails to provide a "coherent account of the terrorist attack or its historical context" and focuses on Islamophobia, xenophobia, and civil liberties.
From its analysis, NAVI concludes that "the curriculum is a case study in why parents and educators should not judge instructional materials by their title, institutional affiliation, or endorsement." Despite the fact this was developed at UPenn and is recommended by educational organizations, it's lacking important historical context, puts activism ahead of facts, and promotes a limited perspective on 9/11.
The report ends by saying, "Students deserve historically grounded instruction about September 11th rather than a politicized interpretation of the aftermath."
This is true, and the victims and families of 9/11 also deserve to have their memory honored by accurately teaching what happened that day.
Editor's Note: We must never forget those lost on 9/11 and the American heroes who sacrificed their lives to save countless others.
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